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Hurricane bites into the power supply

Power company officials call on people to conserve energy to compensate for lost supply from the gulf and avert a crisis.

The curse of Katrina is stretching east to Hernando County.

Customers of Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative were urged to cut electricity consumption or face the consequences.

"If there is not enough supply to meet the demand, there will be some type of interruption," warned spokesman Ernie Holzhauer.

"This situation is extremely serious, and people should definitely pay attention to this crisis."

Hurricane Katrina damaged the oil platforms off Mississippi and Louisiana, which are the source of about 25 percent of the U.S energy supply in the form of natural gas and oil.

In addition, the compressor stations that pump natural gas into underwater pipelines between New Orleans and Florida have been flooded, thus interrupting supplies, Holzhauer said.

Those disrupted natural gas shipments generate 30 percent of the electricity Withlacoochee uses.

As a result of the disruption, Seminole Electric, their partner, has converted to fuel oil in its plants. However, there is a limited capacity to store fuel, said Holzhauer.

"What we are asking people to do is to conserve so we can extend the burn time of this fuel in hopes that an alternate source of fuel oil and natural gas can be found or the (equipment ) is repaired," Holzhauer said.

Withlacoochee River Electric chief executive officer Billy Brown has asked customers to raise thermostats 6 to 8 degrees and turn off pool pumps and nonessential lights.

"We . . . will issue daily updates until this fuel crisis is resolved," Brown said in a statement Wednesday.

Withlacoochee serves more than 185,000 customers in parts of Hernando, Pasco, Citrus, Sumter and Polk counties.

Progress Energy Florida and Tampa Electric Co. have also asked customers to ease up on their electricity use.

Raise thermostats 6 to 8 degrees.

Turn off pool pumps.

Turn off nonessential lights.